Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Ecclesiastes 12,9-14
Besides being a sage, Qoheleth taught the people what he himself knew, having weighed, studied and emended many proverbs.
Qoheleth took pains to write in an attractive style and by it to convey truths.
The sayings of a sage are like goads, like pegs positioned by shepherds: the same shepherd finds a use for both.
Furthermore, my child, you must realise that writing books involves endless hard work, and that much study wearies the body.
To sum up the whole matter: fear God and keep his commandments, for that is the duty of everyone.
For God will call all our deeds to judgement, all that is hidden, be it good or bad.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
A disciple closes the booklet with a brief portrait of Qohelet. He remembers him as a "wise" man who knew how to convey wisdom even to the common people. He went about in the town squares, at the city gates, along the byways; his classroom was the public places. He spread to all the wisdom he had learned from the law. He knew how to condense his teachings in mnemonic formulas so that the people could carry them along in their lives. "He listened" and "inquired," the disciple notes. He had been a true "teacher" who had sought to convince his hearers by finding the most adequate means for his words to reach minds and hearts. This disciple compares Qohelet’s teaching to the "goad" with which the peasant prods animals to work; and he compares the collection of the wisdom maxims to nails well-placed, firm points of reference and direction. He adds then that these words "were given by one shepherd." He perhaps wants to imply that behind all wisdom sayings is God himself, source of all wisdom and Israel’s sole shepherd. This is how Qohelet becomes God’s messenger. All his authority comes from the fact that he teaches that wisdom, which comes from God, and that God himself has entrusted him with it as a treasure to be examined and taught. A second redactor has added the last three verses. He turns to the reader calling him "my child," and warns him against getting scattered with too much reading. It is an exhortation to not easily neglect the reading of Qohelet. And, in a way, he gives the reason with a general synthesis of the master’s teaching: "Fear God and keep his commandments, for that is the whole duty of everyone. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil" (vv. 12-14). The redactor wants to sum up Qohelet’s entire doctrine in these two pillars: the "fear-respect of God" and the "keeping of his commandments." On this path, he adds, we become "humans," that is, we face existence robustly, knowing that the Lord sees and scrutinizes everything, trusting, however, not in our strength, but only in the firmness of God.
Prayer is the heart of the life of the Community of Sant'Egidio and is its absolute priority. At the end of the day, every the Community of Sant'Egidio, large or small, gathers around the Lord to listen to his Word. The Word of God and the prayer are, in fact, the very basis of the whole life of the Community. The disciples cannot do other than remain at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary of Bethany, to receive his love and learn his ways (Phil. 2:5).
So every evening, when the Community returns to the feet of the Lord, it repeats the words of the anonymous disciple: " Lord, teach us how to pray". Jesus, Master of prayer, continues to answer: "When you pray, say: Abba, Father". It is not a simple exhortation, it is much more. With these words Jesus lets the disciples participate in his own relationship with the Father. Therefore in prayer, the fact of being children of the Father who is in heaven, comes before the words we may say. So praying is above all a way of being! That is to say we are children who turn with faith to the Father, certain that they will be heard.
Jesus teaches us to call God "Our Father". And not simply "Father" or "My Father". Disciples, even when they pray on their own, are never isolated nor they are orphans; they are always members of the Lord's family.
In praying together, beside the mystery of being children of God, there is also the mystery of brotherhood, as the Father of the Church said: "You cannot have God as father without having the church as mother". When praying together, the Holy Spirit assembles the disciples in the upper room together with Mary, the Lord's mother, so that they may direct their gaze towards the Lord's face and learn from Him the secret of his Heart.
The Communities of Sant'Egidio all over the world gather in the various places of prayer and lay before the Lord the hopes and the sufferings of the tired, exhausted crowds of which the Gospel speaks ( Mat. 9: 3-7 ), In these ancient crowds we can see the huge masses of the modern cities, the millions of refugees who continue to flee their countries, the poor, relegated to the very fringe of life and all those who are waiting for someone to take care of them. Praying together includes the cry, the invocation, the aspiration, the desire for peace, the healing and salvation of the men and women of this world. Prayer is never in vain; it rises ceaselessly to the Lord so that anguish is turned into hope, tears into joy, despair into happiness, and solitude into communion. May the Kingdom of God come soon among people!
For the sick, in memory of the dead, for peace
